Homecoming Weekend Recap, Hobart Falls to Fisher 34-14

I am just getting the cob webs out after arriving home from New York last night after 12 AM PT.

I am scraped and bruised from the HWS Fall Nationals (aka soap box car racing), where I commandeered, then subsequently crashed, the Hobart Alumni Association car. A picture of me prior to the disaster is posted on the HWS website:

http://www.hws.edu/experience/twip/photo231/

The box car is the 12th photo in. There are also a few clips my classmates and I playing some live rock n' roll (as "The Rum Runner Band") prior to the SJFC-Hobart game as well.

Needless to say, the campus looked great and the weather was pretty good. Unfortunately the Cardinals spoiled the Statesmen's Homecoming and looked very much like one of the Top 25 teams in all of DIII.

Anyway, here's a recap of last Sunday's game. Will post more regarding the upcoming match up against Saint Lawrence and the commencement of Liberty League play later this week:

Homecoming Game Recap

The first night football game ever played on Boswell Field would be a battle of the unbeatens, as the Hobart Statesmen hosted the St John Fisher Cardinals last Saturday in Geneva, NY.

Both teams took the field for the standing-room-only crowd of 3,903 on Hobart's Homecoming and Family Weekend.

The Statesmen won the coin toss and elected to take the ball. Hobart had a chance to put points on the board, but Conor Callahan's 37-yard field goal attempt was no good.

The vaunted Cardinal offense wasted little time and countered with a 12-play, 74-yard drive, but the Statesmen defense held and so Fisher settled for a 23-yard field goal - which was good - by placekicker Chad Monheim giving Fisher an early 3-0 lead.

Hobart's second offensive possession also stalled and Fisher would take advantage capping a seven-play, 81-yard drive with a FuQuan Borum 8 yard touchdown run.

Down 10-0 the Statesmen advanced to the St. John Fisher 25 on their ensuing drive, but rather than attempt another field goal, failed to convert and turned the ball over on downs.

Hobart defense forced the Cardinals to punt on their next possession, but the Fisher made a big play, recovering a Statesmen fumble to set them up at the Hobart 42. Nine plays later, Borum barreled in from 2 yards out to post Fisher to 17-0 lead.

Hobart went three-and-out again, but Kyle Macey busted through the middle of the line and blocked the Statesmen punt out of bounds at the Hobart 41.

With another short field, Fisher once again only needed seven plays to return to the end zone. Cardinals’ quarterback Tim Bailey threw a 3-yard pass to Scott Biehl to make it a 24-0 lead and the rout was on.

Hobart finally responded with a two-play, 63-yard drive that featured Steven Webb making one of the most athletic plays I've been in a live football game since I watched Reggie Bush at USC. Webb caught a short pass on second and eight and burned the Cardinal defense for a 61-yard touchdown, closing out the first half scoring.

Both teams traded possessions for most of the third quarter until Fisher connected on it's second field goal of the game - a 25 yarder - to push the Cardinal lead to 27-7 with 3:09 remaining in the third quarter.

FuQuan Borum scored his third and Fisher's final touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter.

Hobart's Steven Webb would score his second touchdown of the game capping a 12-play, 63-yard drive with a 7-yard run to the end zone for his sixth rushing TD of the season. Still, the night belonged to the Cardinals and they took the win by a 34-14 final.

Fisher out gained Hobart 473 to 400 yards. Borum lead the Cardinal ground attack posted 177 yards on 33 carries and three touchdowns.

Quarterback Tim Bailey threw for 248 yards and one touchdown, completing 23 of 39 attempts.

Webb finished with 103 rushing yards and a touchdown on 14 carries and three receptions for a game-high 109 yards and a TD. Webb is the first Hobart player in more than a decade to gain 100 rushing and receiving in the same game.

Statesmen quarterback completed 17 of 32 attempts for 243 yards and one touchdown and an interception.

Statesmen senior Kyle O’Laughlin and junior Reggie Robinson shared game-high honors with 10 tackles apiece.

Brendan Moore had nine stops for Fisher.

The Cardinals improved to 4-0 and will open their Empire 8 play against 4-0 Utica College next Saturday.

With the loss Hobart drops to 2-1 and the Statesmen will look to rebound when they begin Liberty League play next Saturday, when the Hobart travels to St. Lawrence.

You can check out the archive of last Sunday night's "In the HuddLLe" show at http://www.inthehuddlle.com/ where I was "surprise guest" given I called in from the Atlanta airport en route back to California. We covered the Hobart-Fisher game, among others, and previewed the upcoming weekends' games.

Brief analysis on the Fisher game

While the Cardinals deserved to win the game and were the better team, the Statesmen didn't do themselves any favors with four major mistakes that ultimately Fisher took advantage of to put the game out of reach.

These plays included the following miscues by Hobart:

1. Missed 37 yard field goal on the opening possession
2. Fumbled punt return, giving the Cardinals a short field (took over from the Statesmen 42 yard line)
3. Overthrowing on 4th down from the Fisher 25
4. Giving up the punt block which gave the Cardinals the ball near the Hobart 40

The Hobart offense especially stuggled on third down where they were 0 for 10 on the day. These struggles, compounded by the turnovers, gave Fisher a 17:43 to 12:17 advantage in time of possession in the first half which ultimately put the game away. The Cardinals rode Borum to a career day and the Fisher OL seemed to man handle the Hobart front four with most of the Statesmen linebackers playing off the ball and not blitzing very often due to the concerns around Bailey and the Fisher passing attack.

Hopefully the Statesmen will learn from this game and fortunately start with a clean slate (0-0) in Liberty League play on Saturday.

Thanks for reading and go 'Bart!